Great work creates change

The building blocks of great marketing ideas are strong creative strategies based on thorough research and aggressive positioning. I’ll cover these topics throughout my work, as they create the foundation and criteria for any set of ideas generated to solve a problem.

In addition, once you get to the layer of actual marketing ideas or concepts, we need additional criteria for determining which ideas are good and which are not. Even when they are on strategy, some ideas just don’t have what it takes to be great. I call my criteria, the DELTA of great work – because great work creates change and Delta is the symbol for change. It becomes an acronym of the following:

DISCUSSION – does it create a conversation? Is it polarizing? Avoid fluffy kittens. They are cute, and everyone loves them, agreed. Moving on.

ENGAGEMENT – does it beg for participation? Does it leave something to be filled-in or solved? Don’t give away the farm; make them earn it. People can’t resist a mental puzzle.

LINGERING EFFECT – does it leave something to ponder? Something that you want to keep tinkering with in your mind? Something that bugs the crap out of you for days? Good.

TINGLE, TICKLE, TITILLATE – does it? Nobody likes a good idea that just lies there – ideas need personality, attitude and charisma. They need to leave something in their wake, something you can feel.

ACTION – is it easy to act on? Is the action rewarded? Life’s a maze already. Make sure to provide some cheese – and I’m not talking about “gong show” kinda cheese.

If an idea gets the thumbs up on these five levels, it’s got a chance to be great. It still has to be executed with vision and skill to be successful. So your work is not done.

Success is fleeting and the only thing that really counts is what you do next. Make sure it’s great.